farm safety

farm safety

This is the time of year when we gather to feast on roasted turkey, stuffing and other fixings. For many, it will be the first time they will prepare a holiday dinner, while for others, it will be the latest of many memorable occasions. But those memories should not revolve around foodborne illness, according to a Penn State expert.

A recent death and serious injury resulting from gases inside a Lancaster County silo are grim reminders to those working and living on farms that gases produced during the fermentation process can be deadly, according to a farm safety expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Nationwide Insurance has given Penn State a $1 million gift to create and endow the Nationwide Insurance Professorship in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Funds from the endowment will provide the professorship holder, the Nationwide Insurance Professor of Agricultural Safety and Health, with resources to expand research, teaching or outreach efforts and best safety practices.

Frigid winter temperatures might prompt homeowners, farmers and others to help heat houses, occupied outbuildings or other structures with kerosene or propane space heaters. But without proper precautions, that could be a fatal mistake, according to safety experts in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Reducing the risk of injury or death for young people on farms is the goal of a new project aimed at developing a coordinated national approach to youth farm safety education. Led by safety experts in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, the Safety in Agriculture for Youth project will serve as an umbrella for curricula, programs, activities and expertise across the country, with an eye toward increasing safety and health knowledge and reducing hazard and risk exposure to youth on farms and ranches.

In the wake of several manure-pit fatalities on mid-Atlantic farms in recent years, researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have published a new, international standard to vent confined animal-manure storage facilities used at large livestock operations.

A narrowly averted farm tragedy in September has a farm safety expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences renewing his warning about the dangers of toxic gases emanating from manure-storage facilities. Davis Hill, senior extension associate in the University's Agricultural Safety and Health Program, notes four predominant toxic gases that are produced during manure storage and released during agitation. The most serious of these, from a health standpoint, is hydrogen sulfide. Federal and state agriculture officials have raised concerns about the possibility of higher-than-usual levels of hydrogen sulfide gas being emitted from manure pits containing gypsum-based animal bedding.

A unique set of circumstances that could lead to a heightened threat of deadly gas again is being created in silos across the Northeast, according to a farm-safety expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is part of a consortium of 74 land-grant universities offering answers to hundreds of agriculture-related safety and health questions for the new farm-safety section of a national website.

The recent deaths of three Pennsylvania farm-family members in a manure-storage pond in Maryland is a stark reminder of the need for safety precautions when working around such facilities, according to a farm-safety specialist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

In response to a tragic, four-state, two-week series of fatal accidents involving agricultural producers and skid-steer loaders, a farm-safety expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is calling for operators to take precautions.

The four fatalities have occurred since mid-February in New York, Minnesota, Indiana and Wisconsin, according to Dennis Murphy, distinguished professor of agricultural safety and health. He noted that the accidents all had certain factors in common.

Westfield Insurance Foundation, an Ohio-based private foundation, has contributed $15,000 to a project developed by Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences to help save farmers lives. The donation will help support the ROPS Retrofit Program for Pennsylvania Farmers, which provides rebate funds to install rollover protection structures, or ROPS, on tractors.

A unique set of circumstances could lead to a heightened threat of deadly gas being created in silos across the Northeast, according to a farm-safety expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

A program launched recently by Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences aims to put rollover protective structures, or ROPS, on hundreds of tractors and save the lives of Keystone State farmers. Kicked off Jan. 4 at the Keystone Farm Show at the York Fairgrounds, the ROPS Retrofit Program for Pennsylvania Farmers addresses a continuing crisis -- dozens of farmers die in tractor accidents every decade.